Sisters, 5 and 10, mauled by dog

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Two Joliet sisters were injured, and one of them was hospitalized, after they were attacked Tuesday afternoon by a Rottweiler.

The girls, ages 5 and 10, were mauled around 3 p.m. while trying to feed the dog at their home on the 1000 block of Draper Avenue, police said. The 5-year-old was taken to Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, with what Police Chief Fred Hayes described as "very extensive facial and head injuries." The 10-year-old was not hospitalized.

The dog reportedly escaped from its cage into the backyard, where it attacked the younger girl, then tried to enter the home. After the boyfriend of the girls' mother ejected the dog, it went after the 10-year-old, who fled into the street. A passing motorist stopped his car, grabbed a metal bar and intervened.

The good Samaritan, several residents and Joliet police corralled the dog, Hayes said. Will County Animal Control took the animal into custody.

Hayes said the girls' mother had been caring for the dog for two months and had been trying to get the owner to retrieve it.

Several residents told police they had called in complaints about the dog, "but we never received them," Hayes said.